Times Square is famous for its advertisements, but especially attracts the attention of online critics.
On the billboard, a depressed woman holding her head in her hands—a classic metaphor for food culture—asked a rhetorical question: “Feeling fat and lazy?” At the same time, a thinner, smiling woman Female, fitness coach Deborah Capaccio (Deborah Capaccio) appeared in front with her social media handle and website.
The advertisement is based on New York Post It is located at the “southeast corner of West 48th Street and Seventh Avenue” and has aroused the outrage of audiences accusing it of acrophobia, including actor and activist Jamila Jameel.
The controversy involves larger issues surrounding food culture, especially the promotion of so-called “weight loss” techniques and tools to disadvantaged consumers. According to the March 2021 edition of the US Weight Loss and Diet Control Market Report, the weight loss industry in 2019 is worth 78 billion U.S. dollars. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, the peak has dropped slightly since then, but the report states that “as Americans are vaccinated and businesses reopen, suppliers are looking for a strong rebound in 2021.”
In a lengthy Instagram post earlier this week, Jameel shouted out a large billboard in New York City: “This is a blatant obesity phobia, but also a very capable advertisement. What has always troubled me is that we still don’t realize that cruelty and offense to fat people is hate speech. It is. It is still the open season on fat bodies.”
She added: “Most people in the United States are fat. This surprised me. We are so reckless about the mental health of many people under the pretext of caring about their physical health.”
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The 35-year-old Jameel, perhaps best known for her National Broadcasting Corporationof Good placeShe is outspoken on issues related to body image and eating disorders, which often stems from her own struggle with anorexia. “Fat people don’t naturally become lazy and unhealthy. Thin people don’t naturally become active and healthy,” she wrote. “Because of such advertisements and such information, I have been anorexia for 20 years. For most of these 20 years, I have not eaten. Do you think I have the energy to do anything? I can’t exercise, I can’t clean, I often Can’t even brush my hair/teeth.”
Jameel is not the only one opposed to billboards. As recorded in a video posted on social media, singer and influencer Matthew Anchel also disputed the ad.
“Can you fucking believe this billboard?” he said in the clip. “What is this? I want to petition to take it down.” He went on to call the billboard “too rude to fat people.”
Despite the criticism, Deborah Capaccio, the fitness coach behind the billboard, seems to insist on her message. In an Instagram post on July 7, She clearly condemned the idea that her ad was fat phobia, writing: “Feeling fat and lazy? Yes. I do! [I also feel proud af!] Fat humiliation? Um, my goodness, no. “
Her website GetYourSparkleBackGirl.com also provides similar information because it promises “[take] You go from feeling fat and lazy to healthy and energetic. “
Weekly newspaper Anchel and Capaccio have been contacted for further comment.
Ads like Capaccio are often criticized for promoting food culture, which in turn may perpetuate patterns of eating disorders and negative body image.According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders [ANAD]”Eating disorders affect at least 9% of the world’s population” and “is one of the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdose.”
